Home
by AmaHoshi
Summary: Home used to be where the clacking of bamboo swords could be heard even on the grassy hill where her tombstone laid. Now, home is half a step behind him with the lingering scent of salt and sea. A slight ZoLu Nakamashipping, edited version up as of 5/21/14


Oh geez… this one came out of absolutely nowhere. I just know that I really wanted to write something. Like, really, really badly. So, this is what came out. It's only slightly ZoLu, you can definitely read it as NakamaShipping if you disregard the very last sentence. Well, hope you enjoy! Read and review!

I do not own One Piece, otherwise ZoLu would be canon…

Edited: 05/21/14, format and minor grammar issues.

**Home**

"Won't you stay here with us?" Her question is asked with a hint of desperation, the voice of a lonely woman looking for someone to lean on.

He turns around and faces her, eyes drifting down to where her hands rest on the shoulders of a little boy. The child looks at him with wide, hopeful eyes, silently repeating the question his mom just asked a few seconds ago.

He hears the sound of rustling behind him and lazily looks over his shoulder. They are packing up the supplies they just received and getting ready to head back to the ship. He can't help the smirk that appears when he hears Sanji muttering curses about how he's the one that gets the proposal.

He doesn't care much for the proposal in itself, but knowing he has one up over the shitty cook makes his day just a little brighter.

* * *

Nami shakes her head in bemused wonder. The navigator silently wonders if the poor woman actually knows what she's asking. Why would anyone want _their swordsman_ to stay behind? Sure, he was strong, but that was said for just about any of the male members of their crew.

Well, maybe not all of them, she corrects herself as her thoughts drift to the long-nosed sniper. She casts one last look at the woman and child pair before sighing, giving them a small, sympathetic smile and turning back towards Sunny.

She doesn't need to wait for an answer, she already knows.

* * *

Usopp stares at the woman, flabbergasted. He is half in awe and half in shock that someone would actually ask the violent demon slayer to stay with them.

Nevermind the fact that he's one of the Eleven Supernovas or the fact that he's bound to be chased by the World Government no matter where he goes. The fact that someone actually had the galls to ask him to stay with them despite his sharp, steely glare at just about everyone made the ship's sniper put this woman high on his list of respected people.

Just below the rest of the crew.

* * *

Brook refrains from asking the woman to show him her panties. While it would help relax the woman and break the tense, awkward air, the skeleton knows it would be great disrespect to interrupt the moment.

It was obvious that it took a great deal of courage to ask the question and while Brook has no actual organs to show, he has the accumulated wisdom of 70 years, 50 of which was spent in the dark, alone.

The walking skeleton knows more than anyone else on the crew how it feels to be alone, and then to have a light seemingly enter your life. So he, too, turns around and treks back to the ship silently.

* * *

Franky climbs out of his giant robot, for once silently. The cyborg hates not being in the middle of attention, but he is also a sucker for touching romances and this confession hits him hard in the gut much like how any other tear-jerker romance novel does (he won't admit it to anyone though, he's a man damnit!).

He looks at the green-haired crewmember, sight blurry and unclear from the tears. A hand is tugging at him and leading him back to the ship while another is holding up a tissue. He blows into it loudly and thinks about the ending of this confession scene, which leads to another whole round of bawling and tears.

* * *

Robin absentmindedly fetches another tissue for Franky as his tears increase. She looks back towards Kenshi-san as she continues walking, silently thinking about the various answers that he could come up with to the sudden confession.

The archaeologist knows without a doubt, just like Koukaishi-san, what the final answer would be, but her mind is already attuned to always looking at the worst-possible consequence.

She is distracted and forced to look back towards the front when the cyborg yet again bawls for the "poor woman who just wants love".

* * *

Sanji is one of the last few to leave.

The blond cook switches between glaring hatefully at the stupid marimo and swooning with hearts in his eyes at the woman standing across from him.

He wants to cut in and ask the woman to have him stay behind. He wants to kick the stupid man across the head because he wouldn't know the difference between a goddess and an earthworm even if the goddess was in his bed with a written invitation. Instead, Sanji purposely leaves behind the heaviest shopping bag they bought that morning and a bag of slime that Usopp needs for his weapon but didn't want to carry because it would get over everything else in his hands.

The cook takes one last puff of his cigarette before throwing it out and squashing it with his foot, imagining it was the mosshead's head instead before he walks back to the ship, eyes turning in devotion and admiration with the thought of making a special dessert for Nami-san and Robin-chwan.

* * *

Chopper looks at Zoro, then the woman, then back at him again.

The small reindeer doesn't really think he will leave them for her, but he still can't help the tears that pool at the thought of his brother figure possibly leaving. He is almost about to run up and launch himself at the other guy's legs to beg him not to leave when a hand pats his head reassuringly.

He looks up and sees a wide grin from his captain, and suddenly, everything is ok again.

Chopper nods when Luffy points back to the ship and complies with his captain's silent order.

* * *

Luffy is about to follow Chopper when he catches the eye of his swordsman. The teen grins widely, letting out a silent _shishishishi_. His eyes twinkle with amusement as they send out a silent message, and then Luffy, too, is heading back to the ship.

A delicate cough makes Zoro turn his head back towards the pair. They stare at him expectantly, waiting for an answer.

The first mate is at a loss. Not because he doesn't know what he wants to do (_there was never a doubt to that),_ but rather because the small, tiny pair of eyes belong to a boy with raven hair. The expression the child has on now makes him remember another person with raven-hair who is always grinning happily as he sits on the top of the ship's figurehead, one hand holding onto his worn straw-hat to keep it from falling.

Zoro doesn't want to see this child's disappointed face because he somehow feels that it would make him recall Luffy's face as it's grimaced in pain, and that is one memory Zoro never wants to see again.

She waits patiently for an answer.

The man standing in front of her is fearless, strong, and ruggedly handsome. He swept into her narrow world and both literally and figuratively pulled her from the small corner she was enslaved in. She wants him to stay, to be with her and her child.

She wants to build a home for the three of them with him.

He's still silent, not saying a single word. He's facing them, but his mind and eyes seem to drift off. She follows his gaze and sees the red-clad back of the crew's captain. She looks back at him, opening her mouth to say break the silence when…

_Oh._

She wonders how blind she must've been to not see it all along. So when her son grows restless and is about to reach out to tug at Zoro's hand, she places a firm hand on his shoulders and wordlessly tells him to be still. The little boy quiets under her touch, and she focuses her attention back to the swordsman.

"What is your definition of a home?"

Zoro's eyes flicker with surprise, and for once, they are entirely focused on her.

"Home was the place where I could hear the clacking of bamboo swords even on the hill."

"And now?" Despite her previous blunder, she is a smart woman and notices the usage of past tense, so she encourages him to continue. His face softens and his eyes mist over, like he is seeing images that only he holds the key to.

Zoro's mind conjures up the green, grassy hill where Kuina's grave is situated. He remembers being a child and gripping his sword tightly as tears dropped out because they could never fulfill their promise anymore. He remembers going to his master and begging for Kuina's sword. He remembers making a new promise, to be the best swordsman in the world for both Kuina's sake and his sake.

Then, all of the sudden he is tied to the execution cross with the hot sun blaring down on him. The mental and physical exhaustion slowly powers over his will to stay alive when a grin appears in his line of sight, and there's a cocky, taunting voice asking, "Are you really strong?"

He sees the same grin over and over again: as they're dodging Marines, as he falls into the ocean without ever breaking the damn grin because _"you're there"._

Zoro breaks out his of musings and smirks, turning around to pick up his share of the luggage his crew purposely left behind for him.

"I can't stay with you."

There is no actual need for the statement, he realizes. The woman already knows.

She smiles at him sadly, and he can see the tears that both she and the small child are trying to hold back. But she still looks at him brightly even behind the sadness and her eyes ask for the last part of the answer.

Zoro remembers the pain he felt when he heard the news of Ace's death. His body still has the haunting chill of helplessness when he realized that he couldn't be there for his captain memorized.

"Home is half a step behind him, with the lingering scent of salt and sea."

She is not a stupid woman.

She knows how to tell the difference between a gaze of loyalty... and a gaze of love.

**End**


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